Delivered Cheyenne 26/4/44; Kearney 11/5/44; Grenier 24/5/44; Assigned 326BS/92BG [JW-F] Podington 4/6/44.



Missing in Action Kassel 22/9/44 with Maurice Sample (Killed in Action); Co-pilot: Ralph Peters, Navigator: Gene McReady, Bombardier: Tony Kulikowski, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Ray Reierson, Radio Operator: John Kisgen, Ball turret gunner: Perwin Knutson, Waist gunner: Joe Cullen,Tail gunner: Harry Rueschman (8 Prisoner of War); flak, crashed Kell, SE of Trier, Ger; Missing Air Crew Report 9371. BABY BUTTON.



""On 22 September 1944 the B-17 “Baby Button” piloted by Maurice J. Sample of 92 BG took part in an attack on a Wehrmacht maintenance facility near Kassel. Even before reaching the target two engines were knocked out by flak and Sample changed course to return back home. His ship lost more and more altitude and on reaching the Rhine River a flak shell exploded above it, badly wounding the pilot and setting ablaze another engine.

Four of the men bailed out, five were still in the plane when the co-pilot emergency landed it near Kell. Shortly thereafter, still on the crash site, the pilot died of his wounds. The others survived and were taken captive. The parachuters had landed between Gehweiler and Oberlöstern and near Kastel".